Abstract
This article examines the thematic parallels between (a) Paul's portrayal of the humiliation and exaltation of Christ in Phil 2:6–11 and (b) Luke's story of the public shaming and vindication of Paul and Silas, while they were in Philippi during the second missionary journey. I draw on socioanthropological findings related to collective memory and social identity formation to suggest that the sequence of events surrounding the founding of the Philippian church (later related by Luke in Acts 16:11–40) functioned in an ongoing way as the community's narrative of origins. The story thus served to legitimate the Philippian Christians' social identity as a threatened minority group in the colony. Paul, now imprisoned in Rome (ca. A.D. 62), and quite aware of the enduring impact on the Philippians of events surrounding the founding of the church, frames his picture of Christ in Phil 2 in a way that resonates with this still-familiar story of the humiliation and vindication of the missionaries during their visit to the colony more than a decade earlier.
